#phan fic

The Fentons loved their children. There was no doubt about that.

They did however, get a bit caught up in their work sometimes.

Luckily their children were pretty self-sufficient teens, so the parents hardly worried much if their attention went elsewhere.

They did notice recently that maybe they need to refocus on their kids. Or more specifically, their son.

He was having a bit of a rough patch starting high school which they had been hoping would work itself out but perhaps more direct action was needed.

Once they shifted tactics they couldn’t help but notice how ecto-contaminated he was.

No wonder he was having such a hard time. His health was not at it’s best.

Luckily they had just the thing to fix it.

Or at least they had an idea to anyway.

=============================================

After a few weeks of work, which was much longer than most of their projects these days, they had a viable product.

They each took turns testing it and found it worked wonders for them.

Now they just had to get some for him.

=============================================

“Hey Danno!” Jack called cheerily from the kitchen table.

“Hey Dad,” Danny said as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

“Here sweetie,” Maddie said as she set a plate with a freshly made omelet and a single dose of their latest invention at Danny’s normal seat.

He took his seat and merely raised an eyebrow at the small capsule next to his breakfast.

“It’s just a vitamin dear,” Maddie explained as she started fixing up her own omelet.

Danny shrugged and took the vitamin in one quick go, washing it down with the glass of water that was waiting for him.

“So how’d it taste?” Jack asked before Danny could get the first bite into his eggs.

“Uh? Fine? I guess. I didn’t really taste it.”

“Ah okay. Well just keep tabs on how your feeling today and let us know if anything comes up.”

Danny slowly removed the fork from his mouth and stared as he chewed.

“You know, since it’s new. We want to make sure it’s doing what it’s supposed to.”

He swallowed his food and asked, “should I be worried about what I just took?”

“Of course not,” Maddie reassured, “you know we just like to have all the data we can on our inventions.”

“You made that vitamin?" he asked, sounding oddly frighten.

“Yeah! We just want you to be the healthiest best you, you can be. And that starts with working on those incredibly high ecto-contamination levels you got there sport.”

Danny stared at his breakfast for a beat or two before he spoke again. “Are there any things I should be looking out for? Like an upset stomach or bleeding out of my ears?”

“Well hopefully none of that. Although if you were to notice that please let us know asap, okay?”

“Yeah of course.”

“You might be a little extra thirsty once it kicks in. I know I was.” Jack said with a laugh.

“How long til it kicks in?”

“Oh about an hour or two.”

“So did you guys just finish making it recently?”

“Yeah! Your Mother and I just finished our trial run the other day.”

“But you waited until today to give it to me?” he took another bite of his food as he thought and came to a realization before he finished.

“It’s because I have a 3-day weekend isn’t it?”

“You betcha!” Jack said enthusiastically.

Danny merely nodded in acknowledgement before returning to his breakfast.

=============================================

To better keep an eye on how Danny’s reaction to the vitamin was going they asked him to stay nearby. 

He sighed, but did as he was told.

“Would it be okay if I went upstairs to get something to do.”

“Of course, bud.”

“If you've got any assignments to do I'm sure your father and I could help.”

Danny nodded and got his things. 

=============================================

It was Maddie that noticed something first.

“Sweetie?”

“Yeah mom?”

“That's the third glass of water.”

He looked at the empty glass in his hand, “is that bad?”

“Well no. But it's only been an hour.”

“Oh.” He slowly set the glass down, “That’s the side effect Dad was talking about then?”

“Yeah.”

Several hours later Danny was nearly caught up on all of his homework. 

“Hey, can we have pizza tonight?”

“Oh pizza sounds good!” Jack agreed.

“I suppose,” Maddie started, “but I'm going to wait until you finish that worksheet before ordering.”

Danny groaned dramatically but then doubled his efforts to finish.

Jack chuckled as he went to fetch the local pizza place's menu. Nothing like being food motivated. 

=============================================

Jack and Maddie watched as their son devoured an entire extra large pizza in an astonishingly short period of time.

"Looks like someone was hungry,” Jack said.

Danny looked down at his plate, the now empty pizza box, then his parents.

His cheeks flushed once he realized what he had done.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to eat the whole thing.”

“It’s okay sweetheart,” Maddie said, “why don’t you wash up and get ready for bed.”

Once he was out of the room Maddie pulled out her note pad and jotted down the latest symptom.

“Increased appetite," she said as she wrote.

“Gotta say I’m kind of impressed with how quick he was about it.”

“It certainly was something.” Maddie agreed, “Sure hope that one goes away soon.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine, Mads. Besides Fenton men tend to have bigger appetites anyway. Maybe this means he’ll finally hit that growth spurt.”

=============================================

Later, after everyone had said their good-nights and fallen asleep, they were all awake again.

Danny said his mouth was hurting.

Which was an odd thing for a teenager to complain about.

Maddie went with him into the bathroom while Jack was still working on waking up all the way.

“Oh my gosh!”

Jack immediately woke up and dashed into the bathroom.

What he found was not something he ever expected.

His son had grown fangs.

“Well that explains the pain.”

“Are fangs a normal side effect?” Danny asked as he shyly covered his mouth.

“It’s not a typical one.” Maddie said diplomatically.

Which was much better than Jack’s answer.

Unfortunately he still said it.

“Not at all!”

“Jack!”

“Sorry.”

“Can you make them go away?”

“It’s fine. I’m sure no one will notice.”

“Are you sure?”

Jack bit his lip instead of responding.

Those chompers were pretty noticeable.

The tips of his fangs stuck out past his lips even with his mouth closed.

Although it was only a little bit past. So maybe people wouldn’t notice?

“Have you noticed anything else?” Maddie asked cautiously.

“No. I don’t think so.”

“Alright, well why don’t we all go back to bed and we can see how things are in the morning.”

The three agreed and filed out of the bathroom.

Danny was last and he flicked off the light switch.

Jack didn’t remember the light being on in the hall, yet somehow it wasn’t that dark.

He turned towards the source of the light and stopped dead.

“Mads.”

She looked at Jack before following his gaze.

Danny was behind them. Looking very confused as to why they were staring at him.

“What?”

“You’re eyes,” was all Jack could get himself to say.

Danny reached up on instinct to check but paused when he saw the light bouncing off his fingers.

He immediately went back into the bathroom but closed the door behind himself.

Maddie was at the door in an instant. “Sweetie, open the door.”

“But I can’t make it stop.”

“It’s okay, Honey. Just open the door.”

The was a few seconds of silence before the door opened.

“Are you mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad?”

“Cuz my eyes are glowing like a, like a, you know.”

“I just want to make sure you’re all right.”

Jack slowly leaned his way into view of the bathroom. He didn’t want to crowd the poor kid, but he did want to know what was going on.

“I’m alright.”

“Nothing hurts? Or feels weird?”

“No.”

Maddie placed her hands on Danny’s shoulders and gently pushed downwards.

That’s when Jack noticed Danny had been floating about a foot above the floor.

And that’s the same time Danny noticed too.

In shock he jerked backwards, but since he was still floating, he just glided backwards, almost as if he were on ice.

Jack saw the way his boys eyes darted back and forth from Maddie to Jack to the doorway that they were both standing in.

“Hey Mads lets give him some breathing room.”

Danny immediately looked at Jack in surprise.

Jack smiled to reassure him as he took a step back with his wife.

Danny smiled back. Just a little, but it was enough.

It took about a minute but Danny’s eyes stopped glowing and he was finally able to put both feet on the ground.

The next thing Jack new the boy was wrapping his arms around him as best he could.

Jack returned the hug and was happy when Maddie joined in too.

Then there was this odd rumbling sound.

For a second, Jack thought it was coming from a car outside or perhaps one of the many machines in the house.

But then Maddie was staring at Danny.

That’s when Jack noticed that he could feel the sound. 

The sound that was coming from Danny?

Why was his son purring?

Also how?

He looked at his wife and raised an eyebrow when she looked at him.

She simply mouthed, “side effect?”

Danny crashed into a snowbank somewhere on the outskirts of the main village in the Far Frozen.

For half a second he thought about just crawling the rest of the way but then he felt the snow.

The cold felt so nice against his injuries he didn't dare move and risk ruining what little bliss he had.

Now that he wasn’t moving he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. Or one eye anyway. The other was already closed partly because it was smooshed into the snow and partly because…

Well, the short answer was that it was injured.

He let his eyes close and figured he'd probably hear when someone came by.

Maybe.

His ears were still ringing like crazy.

He pulled a pile of snow closer to his chest with the arm that wasn't underneath himself. The cold felt so nice against his wounds but his core still ached.

He didn't think they had reached it when…

He was pretty sure the cuts weren't that deep…

So why did it hurt so much?

============================================

Danny woke up only slightly aware.

He could tell he wasn't outside anymore.

There were a couple of people having a quiet conversation nearby. Their voices were too low and deep for him to understand anything.

He could feel the various bandages and medical gauze on all his wounds. There was even a patch over his injured eye.

There was an ever present yet gentle chill in the air.

That all seemed to point to him being in the Far Frozen's medical ward.

He was safe now.

He sighed and let himself drift back to sleep.

============================================

The next time he woke up he actually felt awake.

He was still sore but definitely not in as much pain as before.

He took a moment to take in the room. Or as much of it as he could with only one eye.

Frostbite was at his side, thankfully on the side that could see, once he noticed Danny was awake.

“I’m glad to see you awake, Great One.”

“Sorry for crashing in unannounced.”

“No need to apologize.” Frostbite said immediately.

He took a second but then spoke again, “There is something I would like to speak to you about.”

Danny took a breath and braced himself for the questions about why he was here.

“The injuries you have are,” Frostbite hesitated, “concerning.”

Danny focused his attention on the blanket over his knees instead of responding.

“It’s okay if you don't want to talk about it right now. I just need to ask a few things to make sure you heal properly."

Danny felt a little bit of tension leave his shoulders. He really hadn't expected Frostbite to hold off on questioning him.

He hardly wanted to think about what happened, let alone talk about it.

“Did you come into contact with any poisons, chemicals, or any other kind of foreign substance?”

Danny crossed his arms and hugged himself as he took a moment to compose himself. “Yeah.”

Frostbite pulled up a chair and laced his fingers. “I was afraid of that,” he said solemnly.

“I’m not sure what it was exactly but it made it so I couldn’t move.” He started to idly trace an imaginary line back and forth across his blanketed leg, “that wore off though. Obviously. I’d still be there if it hadn’t,” he rambled.

Frostbite placed his hand on the bed, “I’m terribly sorry you were hurt, but I am so thankful that you were able to make it here. My people and I will do our very best to have you healthy again.”

Danny took a breath.

He was so glad he had met Frostbite.

It was nice to have an adult who liked him. Or anyone really.

He was starting to think there was something wrong with him with how many people just could not stand him.

He opened his mouth to speak but hesitated and closed it again.

“Is something troubling you?” Frostbite asked gently.

“If I did something wrong you'd tell me right?”

“I'm always happy to help you learn and grow. But I feel there's more to it than that.”

“I'm probably just worrying over nothing, or maybe I am just a huge screw up and it's just a matter of time before I screw up enough for you to hate me too.” The corners of his eyes started to sting but he held it back. “I always try so hard to make everyone happy and fix things when I mess up, but it's never enough and somehow I always make things worse. Why is it so easy to have people hate me? What's so wrong with me that it's just so easy to hate my guts?”

“Great One, everyone can't hate you. Surely there are people who like you besides me and my people.”

“My two friends and my sister. That's it. Everyone else I know hates me.”

“Well clearly those other people have terrible tastes. I find you delightful.”

“What if I hadn't stopped Pariah Dark?”

“You helped me the very first time we met without knowing a thing about me.”

Danny thought back and he had helped Frostbite get rid of that big icicle from his back.

“And even if you hadn’t needed to do that when we first met, I would still like you.”

The ache in his chest started to soften. It was nice that he could ask stuff like this and not get talked down to or ignored.

It was nice to know that Frostbite really did care about him.

“Great One, I hate to pry but I couldn’t help but notice that you didn’t list your parents on the list of people who like you.”

Danny felt a sharp sting in his core again.

“Great One?” Frostbite sounded worried.

Danny didn’t want to worry him.

Not saying anything was worrying him, but saying the truth wasn’t going to make it better.

“I didn’t because they don’t make the list.”

Frostbite didn’t say anything but Danny could tell he wanted to.

Danny looked up at him, and gave a slight nod. He might as well get it over with.

“Did they?” Frostbite started to ask but didn’t finish.

Danny looked away. He really didn’t want to think about this. Not right now.

The growl in Frostbite’s chest got Danny’s attention.

“Parents shouldn’t hurt their children.”

“They didn’t do it!” Danny quickly defended.

Frostbite relaxed only slightly.

“They didn’t take me being a ghost super well. They sent me away. I think they were trying to fix me. They wanted to get that nasty ghost out of me. I don’t know if they understand that the ghost is me.”

Frostbite pulled Danny into his arms and held him tight.

“Great One, I will personally make sure you have a place to stay here during and after your recovery. You are more than welcome to return to the human world once you are feeling up to it, but know you will always have a place here.”

It seemed like such a simple thing but Danny felt like that hug alone could heal him. It definitely made his core stop aching.

In fact, his core felt better than ever. A nice cool chill radiated off it and left him feeling completely content.

It was nice to know he had a place here.

Surely that offer for a place to stay meant that Frostbite would be the one to take care of him. 

Danny stared into his closet and furrowed his brows. He had looked through his clothes five times already and yet the perfect outfit had yet to materialize.

He spent so much time planning and setting up for today, but somehow forgot to check if he had anything to wear.

“I'm an idiot. An unfashionable idiot.”

He ran a hand threw his hair trying to figure out if there was a way to fix this on such short notice.

Should he cancel?

No! Absolutely not!

“Besides, it's not like they’ll dump me if I don’t have a good outfit for the date,” he said, trying to reason with himself.

“Oh god! What if they dump me for being such a loser who can’t even dress himself properly?!”

He started pacing to try and get the nervous energy out.

“No, they wouldn’t do that.”

He paused in his tracks and realized something else.

“They are both going to look amazing and I’m just gonna be looking like I crawled out from behind the dumpster.”

He threw himself on his bed and got a whole ten seconds of wallowing in before his phone started ringing.

“Hello?”

“Ah, just in time I see,” Jazz said.

“In time for what?” He asked rolling over to stare at the ceiling.

“For your pre-date breakdown.”

Danny wanted to protest but how could he. She knew him too well.

Instead he deflated with the longest sigh he could muster.

“So what’s the roadblock?” she asked.

“I don't have anything to wear.”

“What about that one button up with the stars? That looked good on you.”

Danny hopped back up and moved a few things in his closet. There it was. To most people it would just look like a dark blue button-up with some stars on it, but it was more than that.

It was custom made to have the constellations of his, Sam's, & Tucker’s birthday zodiacs. A wonderful combination of his favorites.

“Thanks Jazz.”

He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t thought of wearing it already.

“That’s what I’m here for, Little Brother.”

Danny rolled his eyes at the pet name. He had outgrown her almost a year ago but he knew she’d always call him that.

They chatted a bit more until Danny really did have to go so he wouldn’t be late.

Danny found it funny how it seemed that ever since she moved away for college they seemed to talk way more than they did when they lived in the same house.

================================================

“So where we heading?” Tucker asked as he slid into the backseat of the car.

“Well, we’ve got a couple stops, but we’ll be heading here first,” Danny said as he handed each of them their ticket for the first leg of their journey.

“The poisonous plant exhibition at the conservatory?!” Sam squeeled in delight.

“Yup! I have dinner reservations for us at 7. Depending on the time, there’s that arcade right there, so we can go there before or after dinner. Or both I suppose.”

“Where are we getting dinner?” Sam asked as she slipped all three of their tickets into her purse.

“That new hotpot place.”

“Yo! I’ve been wanting to try that place for weeks!” Tucker said as he drummed the back of Danny’s seat in his excitement.

“Me too!” Danny said as he drove.

He had almost went before he made the reservations to make sure the place was as good as it claimed to be, but decided it would be better if they all had it the first time together.

As much as he wants everything to work out, he knew they would probably have just as much fun if the dinner sucked and they could complain about it together.

================================================

Sam was 100% in her gothic plant loving element at the conservatory. Even if this wasn’t really Danny or Tucker’s think, they both loved seeing her so happy.

They probably spent at least an hour taking photos of, and with, the various plants.

Since they had plenty of time before dinner, they decided to spend it at the arcade.

It was one they’ve been to plenty of times but it was always fun.

Dinner went amazingly since both Sam and Tucker could enjoy eating whatever they liked without it bothering the other. Plus Danny got to sit in the middle and get the best of both.

================================================

They walked out of the restaurant and Danny felt like this date was a success.

They both looked so content he didn’t think the night could get any better.

“So any other plans for tonight?”

“Um, not really?” Danny said with a shrug.

“You sure?” Sam asked, "because it seems like we did something I like and something he likes but what about you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah man.”

“Well, I guess there’s one thing we could do,” Danny started, “but we don’t have to.”

They both just stared at him. Silently egging him on.

“We could go see the northern lights? We’d have to drive out of town and then some to get a good chance, but even that isn’t a guarantee.” He fiddled with the keys in his hands, “they really don’t show up to the naked eye very well this far south, but I’ve heard you can see them a little bit. They show up better in pictures.”

Sam walked up and bumped into him with her shoulder, “well it’s a good think I know how to take long exposure photos,” she wiggled her camera for emphasis.

“And my new phone has an excellent night mode that I’ve yet to properly try out.” Tucker boasted from Danny’s other side.

“So you wanna go?” Danny asked, just to make sure he was understanding them correctly.

“Yeah man!”

“Let’s go!”